Maduro Rejects OAS Role as Venezuelans Host Rival Marches

March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan government and opposition
supporters held rival marches today in Caracas after President
Nicolas Maduro rejected any mediation by the Organization of
American States and cut diplomatic and commercial ties with
Panama.

Maduro called the OAS a “dying organization” that won’t
be allowed to mediate in the crisis and accused Panama’s
President Ricardo Martinelli, who backs OAS talks, of
“scheming” against the country. The OAS includes the U.S.,
which Venezuela has accused of encouraging three weeks of
protests.

“This president from the right wing is actively scheming
against Venezuela to justify OAS intervention,” Maduro said in
a speech yesterday. “I’m not going to accept anyone conspiring
against our country.”

The OAS said it will hold private talks today in Washington
to consider Panama’s request. Martinelli said on his Twitter
account that Maduro’s announcement surprised him and that he
wants to see peace restored to Venezuela. Panama and Venezuela
are not among each other’s 10 biggest trading partners,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said Venezuela is seeking
support from neighboring nations to stabilize the country
through the Unasur and Mercosur blocs, neither of which include
the U.S.

Violent Protests

The South American country is “confronting a situation
that is not about peaceful protests but violent ones” supported
by the U.S., Jaua said in an e-mailed statement sent by the
government. “It’s the state’s duty to to re-establish order
with proportional force, as we have been doing.”

Public Prosecutor Luisa Ortega raised the death toll from
the three weeks of protest to 19 today, without giving details.
National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello said on state
television that a national guard officer was killed by a sniper.

Maduro, marking the one-year anniversary of former
President Hugo Chavez’s death yesterday, called the protesters
saboteurs detached from the legitimate economic and social
grievances of Venezuelans.

Security forces fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters
last night in the Chacao neighborhood of Caracas, a center of
the protests that erupted Feb. 12 and have killed 18 people.
National Guard troops confronted protesters into the night with
tear gas and rubber bullets. Demonstrators set fire to
barricades to prevent troop advances.

‘The Streets’

The opposition held demonstrations throughout a six-day
holiday that ended March 4 and which Maduro extended in order to
damp the protests.

Student Vanessa Teran, her face covered with a bandanna in
Altamira’s main plaza, said the government is responsible for
high crime and a weakened economy that has made people
desperate.

“We are studying and we have to look for work abroad
because you can’t get a job here,” Teran, a physical therapy
student, said. “I have been on the streets since February 12
and no one’s getting me off.”